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I find books typeset before 1970 sometimes more comfortable to read than more modern versions. I am trying to get this older book style for some of my LaTeX documents. Thanks to TeX Exchange I get pretty close using the Old Standard font and some adaptations.

The one thing I have been searching for years now is the older set theoretic symbols used by Bourbaki for example. They are "flatter" than the standard ones. Here is an illustration: flatter union and intersection symbols

Any ideas on how to get such symbols are very welcome!

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    Welcome. // Can you please add/EDIT to your question code which creates just these two lines? I.e. starting at \documentclass... ending at end{document}, i.e. minimalistic and ready for copy&compile? That will increase both amount and quality of answers in this place :) – MS-SPO Jun 05 '23 at 09:26

3 Answers3

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I'm not sure if I dislike more Bourbaki's mathematical style or the typesetting. Anyway, the symbols at hand are semicircles.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}
\usepackage{pict2e}

\DeclareFontFamily{U}{matha}{} \DeclareFontSubstitution{U}{matha}{m}{n} \DeclareFontShape{U}{matha}{m}{n}{ <-5.5> matha5 <5.5-6.5> matha6 <6.5-6.5> matha7 <7.5-8.5> matha8 <8.5-9.5> matha9 <9.5-11> matha10 <11-> matha12 }{} \DeclareSymbolFont{matha}{U}{matha}{m}{n}

\DeclareMathSymbol{\notsign}{\mathrel}{matha}{"7F}

\makeatletter \DeclareRobustCommand{\flatcap}{\mathbin{\mathpalette\flatcap@\relax}} \DeclareRobustCommand{\flatcup}{\mathbin{\mathpalette\flatcup@\relax}}

\newcommand{\flatcap@}[2]{% \begingroup \settowidth{\unitlength}{$\m@th#1\cap$}% \begin{picture}(1,0.6) \roundcap \linethickness{0.075\unitlength} \put(0.5,0.1){\arc[0,180]{0.4}} \end{picture}% \endgroup } \newcommand{\flatcup@}[2]{% \begingroup \settowidth{\unitlength}{$\m@th#1\cap$}% \begin{picture}(1,0.6) \roundcap \linethickness{0.075\unitlength} \put(0.5,0.5){\arc[0,-180]{0.4}} \end{picture}% \endgroup } \makeatother

\begin{document}

\itshape

$\mathbf{K}(G,P,B)$ is a partial plane \textup(i.e. $[p,q]\leqq 1$ for $p\notsign= q$\textup) if and only if \begin{equation} PB\cap BP=P\cup B \end{equation}

$\mathbf{K}(G,P,B)$ is a partial plane \textup(i.e. $[p,q]\leqq 1$ for $p\notsign= q$\textup) if and only if \begin{equation} PB\flatcap BP=P\flatcup B \end{equation}

$\scriptstyle A\flatcup B\flatcap C$

$\scriptstyle A\cup B\cap C$

\end{document}

Note \notsign borrowed from mathabx.

enter image description here

egreg
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  • Thank you @egreg! Although a bit more complicated than I expected, this does the job. I am happy to see that I did not miss some font or package that provides the symbols rightaway. – Philippe Cara Jun 07 '23 at 19:31
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From The Comprehensive LATEX Symbol List, mathabx provides the flattest \cap and \cup, though maybe not flat enough.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}
%\usepackage{mathabx}

\DeclareFontFamily{U}{matha}{\hyphenchar\font45} \DeclareFontShape{U}{matha}{m}{n}{ <5> <6> <7> <8> <9> <10> gen * matha <10.95> matha10 <12> <14.4> <17.28> <20.74> <24.88> matha12 }{} \DeclareSymbolFont{matha}{U}{matha}{m}{n} \DeclareFontSubstitution{U}{matha}{m}{n}

\DeclareMathSymbol{\flatcap} {2}{matha}{"58} \DeclareMathSymbol{\flatcup} {2}{matha}{"59}

\begin{document} \itshape $\mathbf{K}(G,P,B)$ is a partial plane (i.e. $[p,q]\leqq 1 \text{ for } p\neq q$) if and only \begin{equation} PB\cap BP=P\cup B \end{equation}

$\mathbf{K}(G,P,B)$ is a partial plane (i.e. $[p,q]\leqq 1 \text{ for } p\neq q$) if and only \begin{equation} PB\flatcap BP=P\flatcup B \end{equation} \end{document}

enter image description here

muzimuzhi Z
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6

enter image description here

frown and smile are perhaps closer to the desired form. (I just noticed Sebastiano has a deleted answer saying similar)

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

[ PB\cap BP = PB\frown BP = P\cup B = P\smile B ] \end{document}

David Carlisle
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